BP-Lockerbie hearing postponed

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has postponed a planned Thursday hearing into the circumstances surrounding the release last year of the convicted Lockerbie bomber.

Complaining of stonewalling, Sen. Robert Menendez announced Tuesday that he was postponing the hearing because none of the current and former British and Scottish officials nor any of the BP executives invited had agreed to show up.

Story Continued Below

“It’s disappointing and pretty outrageous,” Menendez (D-N.J.) said. “You guys have blamed the other, in a game of diplomatic tennis worthy of Wimbledon.”

Senators want answers about the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270.

Menendez acknowledged that it’s highly unusual for the committee to ask foreign witnesses to testify. Among those the committee had invited was former British Justice Secretary Jack Straw, current Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward, BP’s Sir Mark Allen, a former MI6 official, and the head of the Scottish prison system health service.

Earlier, Senate aides had pointed to a July 2009 letter by the head of a British-Libyan trade group of which BP is a member urging the Scottish justice minister to release Megrahi or risk severely harming UK Libyan diplomatic relations. Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence official, was released the following month after doctors determined he was suffering from cancer and had three months to live. He returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya, where he has lived for the past eleven months.

The case has tested U.S.-British relations, with some British observers concerned that the American lawmakers were politicking against BP for domestic political gain.

“Obviously, it’s a matter for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee” whether to proceed with the hearing, British Embassy spokesman Martin Longden told POLITICO. “We have provided the committee with a comprehensive account of our understanding [of Megrahi’s release], supported by a significant amount of documents and information.”